So admittedly I’ve been pretty completely m.i.a for the past 8 months. This space has been utterly and completely neglected. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to sit down and write but I’ve just been so overwhelmed with all the changes happening in our lives that I haven’t had the mental head space to do so.

What’s been going on you ask? Just about every major thing you can think of, well not really, but you get where I’m going.

First let me fill you in on a little of what we’ve been up to. This past July the four of us jetted off to Florence, Italy to celebrate the union of my sweet cousin Siria and her Scottish groom Ashkan. Raf and I spent part of our Honeymoon in Florence and seeing as how that was in the middle of winter, it was so nice to go back and experience the stunning city in balmy weather.

Siria and Ashkan’s wedding was something out of a fairytale. It was held in the stunning Tuscan villa, with the ceremony overlooking the rolling hills and cypress trees, while the reception was held in the garden lined with olive and lemon trees. It was unreal. The best part was being able to be there with so many members of my extended family. Here are the kids with their Great Grandma Carol.

Raf has been itching to leave his government job for a while now, and after applying to a few places he got hired as the Lead Data Scientist at a really cool start up that allows him to work remotely. So we started asking ourselves “if we can go anywhere do we really want to stay in the D.C. area?” Basically, the answer was a resounding “no.” Right around the time that this was happening my parent’s decided to leave China and move to Maine, where they had built a house. At the same time, my dad started a foundation call SolHEALTH devoted to promoting health and preventing disease, one population at a time and he asked me to come work for him. Now since we had only owned our house for a year and a half we knew that selling it would be tough, especially since we didn’t want to lose any money. So we decided to test the market and basically over-priced it, cleaned it up and went to stay with my parents for a few weeks. Well to make a long story short, the house sold. We played hard ball and it still sold. Ten days before closing we started packing. We found a place to rent in Maine and drove north. Here’s a picture of us in front of our first home in Virginia, right before we got in the car and left for good.

Ok, so now we’re in Maine. Now what?! Do we even want to be here?! What have we done?! We HATE THE COLD!!!!

Those were just a few of the thoughts that went through our heads right after the move. It was kinda surreal how it all happened so fast. Raf and I didn’t really have time to catch our breath. But with the thought that being near family would be good for us, the slower pace of life in southern Maine was exactly what we needed, and that being closer also allowed me to work for SolHEALTH more easily, we powered on. We got to Maine at the end of August and although I was concerned about finding Asher a preschool that was still accepting students, it was actually pretty easy.

Here he is on his first day of Preschool!

Raf and I began looking for houses and in under 2 weeks we had put an offer on a house which was then accepted and on Halloween day we moved in. Needless to say, I had to break from my tradition of DIY Halloween costumes although I was dying to dress them as characters from Stranger Things. Asher really wanted to be an Astronaut and with everything going on I honestly welcomed the ease of ready-made costumes.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of unpacking and settling in. Raf has been painting every weekend and I’ve been nesting like crazy, because oh yea, I forgot to mention…baby number 3 is due December 3rd!! We’re having another girl and we couldn’t be more thrilled albeit stressed and exhausted from everything else going on.

Raf has really been so amazing during this whole time. Not only is he adjusting to a whole new normal in his career and day to day life but he also has a pregnant emotional wife and two small children who’s lives all just got uprooted as well. It’s been an incredibly stressful time for all of us but being near my parents has made it all worth it.

Life in Maine thus far has been interesting. We’re adjusting to the cold and slowly making friends. The pace of life here is much slower than we’re used to, which is both a blessing and an adjustment. The other day Raf looked out our window and saw some people walking their goats down our street. Yes, you read that correctly. Goats. It’s pretty awesome. Wild turkeys roam free and I’ve nearly (not really) hit a deer in the middle of the road on two separate occasions. It is stunningly beautiful and the people are super friendly if not a bit reserved at first. We are nervous about the fact that spring doesn’t come up here until MAY, but we are looking forward to living in a place where snow doesn’t shut down EVERYTHING.

So there you have it. In a couple weeks things will only get even crazier with the arrival of our newest little one, but hey at least that’ll give me a lot more blog material! Bright side, right? AND can I just say that I am SO looking forward to having another sweet little baby to snuggle! I’m already sad about how fast my time with her as a baby will go by and she isn’t even here yet. Seriously, the baby period is so fleeting and being firmly settled in the knowledge of the fact is both a blessing and a curse of being an experienced parent.